New England Revolution vs. LA Galaxy | MLS Match Preview

Riding a two-game winning streak, the New England Revolution play host to the LA Galaxy on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium before an NBC Sports Network audience. The Revolution made it two league wins in a row for the first time last weekend with a victory against Toronto FC, then strolled to an Open Cup win vs. Rochester at midweek. The Galaxy are coming off a dominant home win against Seattle Sounders FC, though they were dumped out of the Open Cup in a loss at Carolina.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
The New England Revolution made it two wins from as many matches, defeating Toronto FC 2-0 on Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium. The Revolution are in a tie for sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 16 points from 12 matches.

LAST MATCH

The Revolution took the lead after 23 minutes. Chris Tierney sent in a curling service from the left hand side that froze the Reds back line and located Diego Fagundez at the far post, and he gleefully lashed home his third goal in as many matches from the volley.

The home side finished off the match in second-half stoppage time. This time it was from a Saër Sène cross as Juan Agudelo moved into the right spot to divert the ball into the net from close range.

Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made four changes to the team that came away with a 2-0 victory against the Houston Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium. Chris Tierney came into the back four for Darrius Barnes, Scott Caldwell started in place of Clyde Simms, and Juan Agudelo and Jerry Bengtson stepped into the side in place of Ryan Guy and Dimitry Imbongo.

The Revolution have won back-to-back games for the first time since defeating Chicago and Montréal each by 1-0 scorelines in the final two games of last season. The Revs won consecutive games twice last year, after not doing so over the entirety of the 2011 season.

For a second consecutive week, Diego Fagundez and Juan Agudelo were the goalscorers as the Revolution won 2-0 for the second game in a row.

“He does everything for the team. He does all the little things, the hard work, gets his toes in, he’s defending on the top of the box,” Heaps said of Agudelo. “So, right away he jumps up in that the players buy into what he’s doing. His ability around the box he just shows he’s really crafty he’s really got good body control. The two goals he’s scored have been, to me, pretty incredible goals. He’s kind of leaning, just getting his body there and just getting enough on it and those are what goal scorers do they find a way and he’s doing that.”

Fagundez has scored goals in three consecutive games, the first Revs player to do that since Saer Sene did it last May 12-26.

“The way we’re playing right now it’s very fluid in the offense, but we’re pushing where Diego is and it’s a little bit wider and he has a little bit more freedom and so, he’s getting good matchups. I think that he’s an intuitive player as well just like Juan (Agudelo) where they can sense weaknesses in an opponent,” said Heaps. “… I think Diego is becoming a complete player. You see him forward and back doing both things and the better he is defensively the more he does offensively.”

Chris Tierney recorded his second assist in the last three matches, again assisting on a Fagundez goal.

“We inserted Chris Tierney into that offensive winger position as a winger left back and it worked out,” said Heaps. “Unfortunately, our second half we dipped a little bit. It’s kind of been counter to what we’ve done this season where we’ve been better in the second half. So, an area to work on is definitely the way we came out in the second half.”

Saer Sene came off the bench for the seventh time in eight matches and contributed his first assist of the season, setting up the second goal.

“I’m looking at it like an international signing at this point. We’ve had a little glimpse of him but we know he’s got so much more and I think you’re going to start seeing him start to pick up in training,” said Heaps. “He’s well ahead of schedule but now we’re getting a confident Saer where he knows his body can do what he wants it to do and (against TFC) it showed.”

On Tuesday, the Revolution cruised into the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup with a 5-1 win against the USL PRO Rochester Rhinos. Kelyn Rowe scored twice and Andy Dorman, Jerry Bengtson and Chad Barrett added goals.

LA GALAXY
The LA Galaxy returned home and hit for four goals for the second time in three games, this time cruising to a 4-0 victory against Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday evening at The Home Depot Center. The Galaxy are in fourth place in the Western Conference with 20 points from 12 matches.

LAST MATCH

The Galaxy were in the lead after just 12 minutes. Following a partially cleared corner kick, Robbie Keane played a give-and-go with Marcelo Sarvas on the right flank. Keane beat Jhon Kennedy Hurtado on the dribble and whipped the ball into the goalmouth for Sean Franklin to tap home.

The Galaxy made it 2-0 as Keane hit for his first just 12 minutes later. After a short corner, Landon Donovan sent in a bristling cross from the right wing. It hit Omar Gonzalez, ricocheted off Seattle's Brad Evans and fell to Keane, who slotted into the right side of the net.

LA put the game away from the penalty spot, with Keane finishing twice from the spot in the 34th and 44th minutes. On the first, after Gyasi Zardes was felled in the box by Sounders center back Djimi Traoré, Michael Gspurning stopped Keane's first effort. But referee Baldomero Toledo whistled Mauro Rosales for encroachment into the box, and Keane put his second try to the right side of the net.

The fourth LA goal and Keane's third came after Evans took down Juninho from behind on a Zardes pass from the left byline, Keane beating Gspurning to the left side of the goal.

Sounders midfielder Shalrie Joseph was sent off in the 87th minute after making contact with Marcelo Sarvas' face near midfield.

Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made three changes to the team that lost 1-0 to the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena. Greg Cochrane came into the back four for Todd Dunivant, Michael Stephens started in midfield in place of Hector Jimenez, and Gyasi Zardes came in up top for Jose Villarreal.

The Galaxy matched their season-high with four goals, hitting that total for the second time in 10 days (also scoring four vs. Philadelphia) and the third time this season, opening the year with a 4-0 win vs. Chicago.

“I think our start to the game was real good. Guys had a real good positive attitude about getting out there tonight,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said. “I think this year, for a large part of the year, we've played pretty well. We've just been a little inconsistent, a little unlucky at times, and I think at least tonight we rewarded ourselves a little bit and we got the kind of result we deserved.”

Robbie Keane scored the first hat trick of his MLS career to lead the Galaxy to a 4-0 win against Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday at The Home Depot Center. It was his fifth multiple-goal game in 38 league appearances; he has 23 goals total in MLS regular season play.

It was the second hat trick by a Galaxy player this season. The first came in the opening game of the season from Mike Magee.

“It's always nice to score,” Keane said. “One, two, three or four doesn't really matter. As a striker, your job is to score goals, so it's of course great to score a hat trick, but I think the most important thing is getting the three points and bouncing back after the defeat last week against [the] Red Bulls, which we certainly didn't deserve to lose.”

Robbie Rogers made his Galaxy debut, coming on in the 77th minute. The rights to Rogers were acquired from the Chicago Fire in exchange for Mike Magee.

"Once he’s fully fit he’s a true wide player that we haven’t had in a long time and I know Bruce has been searching for a player like that,” said Landon Donovan. “On one hand, we lose one of our most influential players, which is tough, but we’re getting a guy who’s been very effective in this league and we’re really excited to have him.”

Said Arena: “In a lot of ways the easy part is over, now the difficult part remains and that’s getting him positioned to play and that’s going to take some time. Our expectations for Robbie are not anything big in the near future, it’s just going to take time. The plan is just to move him along and see how he progresses and hopefully he can get back to where we think he can be as a player.”

Home Grown Player Gyasi Zardes made his first MLS start and won the penalty that led the Galaxy’s opening goal.

“I thought he played well he was dangerous and was a handful for the Seattle backline for the 80 some odd minutes he played,” Arena said. “I think it was a good performance. He is going to get better as we move forward he is still relatively young and we anticipate that he is going to continue to improve as a player.”

On Wednesday, the Galaxy were dumped out of the U.S. Open Cup at the first asking in a 2-0 third-round loss to the NASL’s Carolina RailHawks. The game’s goals came through Brian Shriver and Austin da Luz just after the hour mark.